On Tuesday 29 September, the RE department at St John Bosco College, Battersea, had our first on-line workshop during these pandemic days. A group of Year 7 students were shown how to use Arabic calligraphy to write passages from the Bible. The session was run by Caabu (Council for Arab-British Understanding) and focussed on the common ground of the three monotheistic faiths of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They explored the make-up and history of the Arab world, which led into the Arabic art part of the afternoon.

The presenter showed students passages from the Bible written in Arabic and demonstrated how, by manipulating them, it was possible to fit the phrases into a variety of Christian symbols. The results were quite impressive. It certainly helped students to understand the current topic in RE of the Church, by showing that it is truly a universal body and not just confined to Western culture.

Fr Andrew Ebrahim SDB

Photos by Br Augustine SDB